42726-Syndicated-ChrisKaufman

0:00 The following is brought to you in part by MFC Studios. The views of the shows host and guests do not necessarily reflect those of the management, owners or staff of this radio station. And now it came from the radio. Yapa Toy and welcome once again to It came from the radio, the official show, the Big Apple Con.

0:44 This is your host, Mark Torres speaking with me in the studio. Once again we have Mr. Hassan Godwin. What does yapa toy mean? Yapa toy, Thank you the universal greeting. This is hello to all my long time fans. How does anybody supposed to know that? What language is Yapa Toy? That's Mark. That's Mark Torres, Parisian. Language. It's it's it's it's Chai. Creation is speak. How's that? How's that? I cover everything. Now everybody knows. Now it's out there in the ether. And also we have the Huracan very own David Donovan. Hey, how y'all doing? Hassan? I'm so happy to meet you. I can't turn and look at you 'cause I have to. Speak.

1:26 No, you gotta speak directly into. The I'm looking at you on my peripheral vision. Yes, And I can see you. Hello. Hello. Is that a little better? Yeah. Is that a little? Bit unique, yeah. Hassan, is that a little better? Right there, that's perfect. Right there. Perfect. As long as you're good with having your microphone handled by another man, it's. Fine, this is going to be this kind of show, guys. I'm not talking about the bathroom. Be quiet as fun. So on this week's show, in addition to talking to, with and about David, which is awesome because he's here, I at C2E2 interview comic book creator Joe McPhee and Elman Jenny Feldy interviews alter and musician Chris Kaufman. Before we do any of that we have to take it away with the non news.

2:14 The same as the news intro. Yeah. How is it the non news the same as the news? How's anybody supposed to know the difference? All right, nevermind. Please continue. That's terrepes. Your language. It's brought you in part by your fine folks with sci-fi dot radio. That is sci-fi for your Wi-Fi. Everybody knows that. Man. It'll be a long half hour. It'll be a long half hour. Is it over here? Don't look at me, pay attention to my. Room as well as as well as the fine folks with the Big Apple corn which the artificial radio show of celebrating 26789 years of complexness and pop culture self. More information go www.bigapplecc.com. The next convention is scheduled all the way for November the 21st.

2:59 Tickets are not. Nothing, nothing. You get nothing, Nothing. So go there, you get nothing. Show up now no one is is there come back in November do. Not go now. Please do not go down. We are not to be held responsible. Actually, if you're close, go down there and tell us what we'd like to know what's going on, right? Taste the joint for us. Also our Patreons, of which they are Danny Villa Worldwind directed Jerry Burrell, Newsday, Famous Resident media Shadow Rabbit, Art Yes and Ray the. Hurricon. That's me. The Hurricon. The party Brian is like, what the hell is going on over here? More lively than ever seen this show. This is a geek show.

3:49 Next week, I'll be back. Next week, folks calling. WWW. It's worth a dollar a month. Come on, you can hear your name on the radio every month. It's a dollar, please. It's if we switch it around, hurricane goes last though, 'cause I like, I like when you kind of, you know, oh. OK. You totally threw him off track. That's true. A dollar a month gets you a shout out on the show. Come on. That's not that hard. Come on, really a dollar? It's like 25. Cents, even in this economy. Yeah, you could. Throw a dollar four shows a month. Give him a break. Come on, that's got to say your stupid name. 4 * a month, I'm sorry.

4:31 Also, honey, he came from the way website. It's like book designated a book about two warning alien races sliding over in your discover power source, the waterfinder way to planet earth, and as a result some humans and abilities. Issue 1 is on sale right now and issue 2 is in the printer and it should be ready. For cover isn't done, the cover isn't. Done. We are done. So I listen to the show. Yeah. Hey, look at me. It's actually at the printer right now. I should be getting the books. This I saw some residuals of it and it's actually. Great. Yeah, yeah. And he's actually happy with it. That's. Who did the cover? You never say who did the. Cover it's it's a photo cover and artistic cover. So we have our Co host Elle Man Jenny Feldy is the model for the cover. I think I saw.

5:12 That and we have Brian Kong and our graphic designer Abby Gabato did a collaboration for the background image. Very cool. Very. Cool, I should have the book if everything works out well. Fingers crossed at the M Kong, which is on next week on the 25th and 26th. I have issue 2 there. And also at the mid on collectibles on Free Comic Book day. We're going to be having a book signing where Jen will be autographing and personalizing issue 2 for anybody who's interested. So if you want, just stay tuned to our show. Very cool Mama. I think we're ready. I. Think so. I turned it down and I wanted to get his brilliant. By the way, you do all that stuff for that. All that stuff is like in your head. 90. Percent. 90% is his. Memory.

5:52 Yes, and. I always try to trip him up and I. Never, never. You did good job today. Hi. So we're ready for our break. We'll be. Right back to take a nap. It came from the radio. Hi, you've heard my voice. Open and close the show. Now we want to hear your voice. If you have a business or product, you can record a commercial here. We offer 30 and 62nd spots. For more information, contact Mark at mfc_studios@hotmail.com Calling all comic fans, Huracan, Long Island's only benefit comic art convention, returns in 2026.

6:33 Join us May 9th and December 12th at Bethany Congregational Church, East Rockaway, NY Grab toys and collectibles, dig through comic books, meet artists and writers, enter amazing raffles, enjoy food, fellowship and rock your cosplay. Just a $5 donation gets you in from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Visit Huracan on Facebook and on Instagram. It's Huracon Li for details. Huracon, where heroes unite for good. Hi, I'm Olivia Yonkers from Star Trek Picard, and you're listening to It Came from the Radio. BKG Productions LLC, your ultimate audio transformation partner. Got audio that needs a magic touch? I am here to elevate your content. Specializing in professional audio editing, I can clean up background noise, plosives and pesky S sounds. Some podcasts to songs.

7:17 I've got you covered. Whether it's an interview, music track, setting volumes to precise specs, e-mail BK GB obiz@gmail.com or go to fiber.com. Search for BK Graves one and trust me to make your sound sparkle. Michael McManus, I played Kai on Lex. You're listening to It Came from the radio. My neural net processor is linked to sci-fi dot radio, the sci-fi for my Wi-Fi. The more I listen, the more I learn. Hello everyone. This is Ellen Dubin from Lex. And guess what you're listening to.

7:59 It came from the radio. Keep listening. Step into the fantastic world of cool kids comics and toys at 2055 Hempstead Turnpike, East Meadow, NY. Discover Comic Con exclusives, the latest Funko Pops, and a treasure trove of new and vintage toys and comics. Whether you're a collector or a first time visitor, we got something to spark your imagination over here. Visit cool kids comics and toys today. Which event should begin? Huh. Hey everybody, this is Todd. McFarlane of the record setting Spawn comic series. And if you're looking for any kind of cool conversation about creators, about entertainment, about all that good stuff, you go to, it came from the radio, you're listening to the right spot.

8:44 Comic Books for Kids is the largest charity in the US for comic books, toys and pop culture items to children in hospitals. And cancer centers. Donations of toys, books, action figures, Funko Pops or anything pop culture related can be made to this organization. Find them at cb4k.org. Hello, this is Carrie Hoskins. I play Sonia Blade in Mortal Kombat. You are listening to It Came from the Radio. Now back to our show. And welcome back to It Came from the Radio, the official facility of Akon.

9:25 This is your host, Mark Torres. This is Metamark with Mr. Hassan Godwin and the Huracan very own David Donovan. Thank you so much, Mark. Who eats a piece of pizza in one hour? Yeah, baby. Slice of Vita, extra slow devour and one slice of Vita. So anyway, talking about Charlie, I want to send a shout out to Charlie. I missed seeing Charlie Saladino, right? To Mr. Charlie, that's amazing. The corresponding Charlie Saladino. Charlie, Hope you're doing better. Charlie. All right. We were talking about him before during the break, so no one knows we were talking about Charlie. Charlie's ears are burning. Is that what we're? Talking about. So everybody knows that we have a great relationship with Mr. David Donovan. I. Hope so.

10:06 Wait, wait, wait, wait. This this weekend, I was up in the Kingston at the Kingston Independent Comic Con trying to rustle up some business. And all my kids talked about Mark is Mark Torres coming because he takes all those pictures, but he only takes pictures of raffle winners and a song. Says he has something to do. He doesn't like losers. So if you come to the hurricane, you lose, get out. Mark wants nothing to do with you. Go near him. Alright, he has win. Did you win the raffle? Did you win? You go away. I have Negan's bat that I wanted the raffle go away. I'm holding it. So since you mentioned the raffle, I'm gonna, I'm gonna start off right there. The Hurricane is a small little convention, but it has the best raffle for any convention I've ever been to or seen.

10:49 It blows my mind how much great stuff you have. I work all year on it. I have a lot of good friends too. I have three really good pieces of original art that are going up that are amazing. We got a lot of got some signed books. We have big oversized books that we got, but we I pretty much collect all year for this event and it's a lot. It's a lot of fun for me. I get a big kick out of it. I really. Do and the raffle is only $5 a ticket which is mind blowing that you can come in potentially and throw down 5 dollars $5.00 an entry right and the. $10 and when he gets back. And when something extraordinary, there's omnibuses, there's figurines, there's so many great things. Was that something that was part of the plan when you decided to make the hurricane?

11:30 The hurricane is is a fundraiser. All the money goes back to the church. So you have to say, OK, what can we do to make money? Where you charge for the tables? Right now? We charge for the tables like the vendors pay, but sometimes the artists don't cuz, you know, they don't make much. It's like, fine, whatever. It's $5 to get in, right? So it's $5 for an adult. But when a kid comes in in a costume, he gets in for nothing. That's the way a comic book convention should be run in my book. Oh my guys, look, guys, coming down with three kids, let him pay. Let the kids in for nothing. OK, Come on. We give away free comics to everybody. There's a table in front which is free comics that can take as many as they want. And the more they take, the less I have to put. So that's perfect. So we got that. We got the tables. We sell food. We don't make a lot of money on the food, but that's the key people there. We have The Walking Taco, which is fantastic. We have a lady named Linda who's worked with me since day one in 2018 running the kitchen.

12:15 She's fantastic. My wife Linda also works in the kitchen. So the two Lindas, and there's also Dolores in the kitchen, they take care of all that. Do you get confused with the two Lindas? I do not. They're very different. Linda's in charge, Linda, Linda, Linda, Linda, number one's in charge. And actually, Linda, my wife Linda, came up with the idea, yeah, for the hurricane. Because what happened was we had to raise money in the church to fix the floor that was damaged or in Sandy, because Bethany Congregational Church of East Rockaway was the relief center. Everybody came there after Sandy. They tracked in oil. They tracked in dirt. They tracked in sewage from the sewage plant that overflowed the floor was a disaster. We had to fix the floor. And they said, what can we do? I said, I don't know. Well, I approached a couple of people who do concerto on on in Long Island who remain nameless and we said, do you want to use this space? No, we can't make any money.

13:01 Why not? Too small. OK, fine. I go home to my wife and I said, why not doing it? She goes, why? I said they said they can't make any money in this space. She goes, well, why don't you do it? I'm like, why would I want to run a comic book convention? And Linda looked at me and said, I don't know why would you want to run comic book convention? So it's been going on since 2018. And the raffle part was a big from the beginning. I don't know how I got the idea to do it, but it grew and grew and grew. And it's just, you know, people send stuff. I, I contact people online about it. All the shops in the area mostly give me things for it. So that's just wonderful. We, we have a good relationship with cosmic comics of, of Baldwin. They give us a lot of the comics Escape pod comics.

13:41 My pound monocum always gives you some stuff. So everybody kind of, you know, I contact everybody for donations, they don't give anything. It doesn't matter. But that's probably the biggest part of the fundraiser is the raffle. And like, I never looked at it that way. It's just 5 bucks. You can win something pretty cool. That's actually a pretty good deal, I think. And it's $5 each. And then I believe it's like 5 for 20 bucks everybody throws out of 20. That's fantastic. Works out really, really well. We make, we make some money for the church. The church has been there since 1885. So everything breaks. Church is an open and affirming congregation. Everybody is allowed and there's no secret handshakes, no past. If you want to shake my hand and tell me a secret, that's OK, but that's got nothing to do with it. Not. Require anything. It's a completely different. Exchange, by the way, that's a different, yeah. That's a.

14:25 Totally different situation. That's a, that's a side business. That's true. Shake my hand, tell me a secret. It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. And like. I said I could see him on the corner. Yeah. Shake my hand, tell me a secret, and then come by. Behind Yeah, that's a. Then you may have a free comment. And we've been doing it since 2018 and I was only doing it once a year. And then about three years into it, they said to me, David, the furnace broke. I'm like, wow, what are you going to do? They said, well you think you should do another show? I'm like do another show. 1's enough. They said, no, do another show. Guess what you could call it. I said, I don't know what can you call it? You can call it furnace con. So one year we didn't do a Huracan, we did a furnace con. And that money went toward. The furnace. So when the toilet breaks, you're going to have a toilet. Con you always say that.

15:08 Recycle jokes. This one. Let's get back to the pizza. Let's talk about favorite old pizza. Pizza a son, Do you have a question for David? I don't know what question could I possibly have. Follow up, at least I didn't ask him why does he name it the David Kahn. That's true, but most of them come down to see me. They do come to see me. They do come to see me. I can imagine I can. I can see them doing that. We have a lot of fun. We have a, we, we do hourly giveaways, half hourly giveaway. We give away hard covers and sketches and stuff like that every every half hour giving something away. So what would you say to someone who who's out here because this place is Long Island seems to be like there's a breeding ground for shows, like everybody wants their own show. What would your advice be?

15:55 Since you've done it well, Yeah, Well, well, do it well. Don't know. Let me, let me tell you the let me tell you my philosophy of the show when I was younger. And how old were you in 1975? You're 2, right? I was 22. OK, well, nights until I was 15. So I would go to the There was a first Marvel convention, there was a first DC convention, there was Phil Solon's convention, there were all these shows in Manhattan. And at 15, for some reason, my parents will let me go into Manhattan by myself. And what? Talk into the my. Talking at 15, my parents will let me go into this. I thought it was pointing to something else anyway, so I I did that. And what I did was you meet people of all races and sexual backgrounds and what have you, right?

16:37 But everybody's accepted because they like comics. It doesn't matter what color you are, who you are, where you're from doesn't matter because you like comics. You're accepted into this group. So that was what I want to do with the Hurricane. I don't care where you're from, who you are, what you did when you come to this show, you're welcome. We welcome you with open arms. You know, everybody said I have a good time and just be nice to everybody. And for the most part, we've never ever really had a problem. Thank God. Knock Wooderson right there. I don't think we've had a problem. So it's a very welcoming community. So your advice is to be nice. 100% don't be a. Don't be a. Don't be a jerk. Don't be a. That's a fun. Don't be a jerk. That's a fun thing. Don't be a jerk.

17:19 Don't be a well, I mean that. That would be my advice to the fans. 100%, but it's you know what and what I would say to other con organizers and look, my show is a very small show. Look, it's been around for a long time. It'll be like in two years, it'll be 10 years, which I can't believe. I would say to any person throwing a convention, just remember what it is to be on the other side of the table. Be the person coming in there. Be that shy person coming in there. Be that person that doesn't belong. When I was in school, you read comics, man. You were out. You were out. I had this one, one girl in grammar school name was Debbie. I'm not going to say a last name, but she saw me with comics and she said you read baby books.

18:01 I'm like, what is that? You know, I'm I'm reading the Spiderman issue about drugs. What are you talking about? Yeah, you. Have no idea and where. You're like toes dipped into adulthood right here, lady. You don't even know. Debbie is. Yeah, Where is she now? Yeah. You didn't read. You didn't read comics and now you're a loser and I have a show. So Debbie is not allowed at the hurricane, No. If she does she Debbie's the only one. I never know it's her. No, no, they can't come in. One Debbie had a picture like Al Bundy and now this person not allowed. That's Hurricane. We'll take a polar and put it up next to the door, you know, so I would say to any convention just just really, you know, and and and you know, The thing is, you never know what everybody's going through, right? So, you know, a lot of people that read comics are very introverted people.

18:44 They're very they're very solitary people, you know, and coming into that show sometimes can really blow them away, you know. So what I try and do is like when we had Joe Kelly at the show, Cosmic comments gave me a load of Spiderman number ones to give away. So that was like an hourly giveaway. And I would take every winner over to Joe Kelly and have them sign the book to them and they'd get to meet him and talk to him. And that you could see people's face lighting up like, wow, yeah, I've been the writer of Amazing Spiderman. That's like, they're getting totally cool. Yeah. They're getting value. Well, I mean, I think if you're saying remember what it was like to be on the other side of the table, I think that's the best advice I've heard about running one of these shows or doing anything like remember what it was like to be the, you know, to be the customer. Yeah, that's amazing.

19:29 It's you, you have to because and that's also how you get people to come back. Like you get the kids to come in in costume. The kids to come in costume, they're actually they're very into it. They want to show you their costume. They want to show you that they're dressed up like spider man. They want to show you this. So it's another thing where you that's another way of walking them in. So hey, you look great. Come on in, You know what have you. So that's what I would do. I would just say look, you know, and look, it's not, it's a one day show, big deal. You know, you're not going to break the bank, Absolutely you're not going to break the bank. But we want everyone to have a good time. And that's really to me what it's all about. Just everybody's accepted. Come on in. We want you here basically. That's what I guess I'm trying to say. One of the things that I've mentioned many times on this show is that there's different types of experiences for conventions. Never heard you say that one. So for the con goer, a small show of this type, I think it's a really good thing to do because you get to 1 on one time that if you went to a New York Comic Con, you wouldn't even have a fraction of the time with the with the people and the talent there.

20:30 And David does bring in some talent. Yeah, Well, yeah, yeah, We have Kristen. She was, she was just on your show. Kristen Gun Snuck is coming in. She did a hench girl and I'm really excited about her because I followed her work forever. So she's coming down. We also have artist Jeff Brennan who worked on Courage the Cowardly Dog. We have artist Tom Travers, we have Brian Benjamin, he's another artist coming in. We have Patrick Hickey Junior, who is a voice on the Five Nights of Freddy. And of course our all pal, publisher and distributor Phil Russert, who will print your comic and bring it to the comic shop. He'll be there also. And our past guests, like I've said, have been Joe Kelly. We've had Star Trek novelist Michael Jan Friedman, we've had artist and writer Franco and also Keith Williams has come a bunch of times to the show. So it's not the biggest show, but I'm not going to say it's the best show because it's not the best show, but it's it's the biggest show either.

21:17 But it's a lot of. Fun, No. You got a really big guest list, though. It's a lot of fun. It's a big people show. Yeah. And yeah, that's what. I'm saying it's a good going and it's also a good, it's a good primer for people that maybe don't want to go to a larger show and kind of understand because it's a lot cheaper to go to that show and interact with everybody. And another strange thing about my show is at my show, a lot of my friends who want to sell their personal comics come. And then you get guys coming in that are buying short boxes of comics for these guys, like, oh, you're $50, take the whole thing out. And these are books you don't see normally. So everybody from the vendor standpoint always tells me, oh, we did really well. I'm like really, you know, we sold a lot of books. I'm like, that's amazing. Thank you. So. Convention starter show.

21:58 Yeah, that's exactly what I'd say. It's a convention starter show. 100% free parking. Yep, free parking. There's parking behind the church. There's parking at the CVS parking lot. There's. Parking lot, trying to trip them up with that. Parking on the street. There's parking everywhere. Absolutely. What about parking? Can you park for free? You know parking is a is. A huge deal. I'm just kidding. There's free parking and we're open on we're on Saturday, May 9th, OK, which is coming up and we're also doing again on December 12th and it runs from 10:00 AM in the morning till 4:00 PM in the afternoon. It's at Bethany Congregational Church, East Rockaway, NY 100 Main St. It's a church that's been in the community since 1885. And now we just just got a a brand new pastor.

22:39 His name is Pastor Prabhu, who has just joined us, been there about a year. So he's also will be at the show walking around. You can say hello to him. Will he be getting our free blessings? He may, may, maybe if you get, if you get a, if you get a ticket, he will absolve you if he. Finds you worthy. You have to be worthy. That's the truth. But you have to, you have to recite the Green Lantern oath. If he don't recite, he doesn't want to know you if you don't have the Green Lantern oath, so. So you have the secret handshake, tell him the secret get a blessing and the Green Lantern old don't. Forget the Green Lantern old. There's a lot of commitment. You have to commit to a lot together. Well, you know, we have two cards, so we have two cards.

23:19 We have one guy just stands around with a Green Lantern old cue card the whole time. I don't know why he comes. But that's what he does. He may be a cheat. Sheet look over, look over and blacker stay and brighter yeah, that guy, yeah. Just bless him. Move on. Come on, we got a line. I absolve you of all your Go away, go away. We got a few minutes left. I want to I want to put this question. In I would love to hear a. Question What do you think has been the biggest change from the first hurricane to now? You're 10 years in what? What has changed within either the convention itself or the world of pop culture in your mind?

24:03 Well, first of all, when when we started, I don't think there were as many common conventions as they are now. And there are a lot and there are a lot of very successful comic conventions here on not even in Manhattan, I would say here on Long Island. Look, you got a bunch of stuff in Queens. I'm not. I'm just talking about Long Island. There's a lot of stuff going on in Long Island. And to tell you the truth, it's very hard to pick a date like right now. I told you May 9th, right? We usually did it in June and July. Probably the reason when I was doing in June and July is it gets very hot in the in the gym and we actually had a vendor collapse and get taken away. I felt very bad about it. But then they found something else wrong with him and he was getting treated for that. So they said don't feel bad about it. We found out about this.

24:44 So that was wonderful. So that's. That's the church convention right there. That's some divine intervention going on. So we. Came and put their hands on. No, he's suffering from other things. He, he, he gave the oath. That's it. He gave the oath. He's. Good. But his ring was out of power, so we had to bring over the battery. So so we had to pick May to get away from that time of the year. And of course there are other shows going on, so you just can't pick a date. You have to look at calendars, you have to talk to people, you have to look at where everything else is going. Actually, I have a calendar where I write down all the shows that are going on just so I know for myself, I mean, there are monthly shows that go on all the time that you have to keep away from. A lot of. Luckily a lot of the shows that are done are done on Sundays, not Saturdays like mine. We don't do it on Sunday because it's church.

25:24 We're not going to do it at the church. That's not going to work out. So we do it on Saturday, like I said, 3:50, Saturday, May 9th at Bethany Church, 100 Main St. East Rockaway, NY. If you want to get in touch with me, it's huracanh.urrcon@yahoo.com. That's Huracan at yahoo.com or Huracan on Facebook or Hurricane Li on Instagram. There you go. Got it. Alright, so we're almost out of time. Hassan, do you have any final thoughts? Go to Huracan. Wow, I did it fit that right in there. Good. Pizza, good pizza. Mark will be walking around. A slice for an hour all weekend. I have a final thought. My final thought is, first of all, I want to Sana was it was a pleasure meeting you, by the way. I think you're fabulous, Mark.

26:08 I think you you have been a supporter for a long time. You put up a lot of my silliness and a lot of my Meshuggen and stuff. So I appreciate that you actually listen to me. I can't believe you invited me back because we based Sana and I basically hijacked the show from you. But that's OK because it is our show now. Mark's not going to be here next week, everybody. Or the both of us won't be here. It's going to be a Charlie. Hello, Charlie. So that this week's segment, everybody listening to us on the air. We'll see you next week. Everybody else, stay tuned for more. It came from the radio. Fantastic. Cradle Con returns to the Cradle of Aviation Museum May 16th and 17th. This year features AGI Joe reunion with Larry Hama, plus The Crow creator, James O Barr, comics, cosplay, retro gaming and more, all supporting the museum education programs. Tickets are at cradleofaviation.org. Hi, I'm Olivia Youngers from Star Trek Picard, and you're listening to It Came From the Radio. Now back to our show.

27:12 And welcome back to It Came from the radio, the official, the Big Apple Con. This is your host, Mark Torres speaking. I'm here live on tape at C2E2 all the way in Chicago. I came all the way here just to talk to my good friend Joe McPhee. McPhee, right? So Joe, tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us how you got into the comics and tell you what's going on, what's happening right now. Well, I'm Joe D McPhee. I'm the President of CGC Studios. This is a small little publishing company here out of Chicago, IL. I have been doing comics professionally ever since 2008 here. So that's when the original Amazonian #1 came out here. The reason why I do comics because it was a lifelong passion of mine. As soon as I got back from the military, from the Air Force.

27:53 So I did a couple of years in the Air Force and then when I started college, one of my college buddies got me started back into drawing comics again. And it got so to the point where it's like he was working on a lot of manga stories, I was working on a lot of American comic stories and he started to take me to a lot of anime shows. I was with him and artist Ally and people started gravitating to the stories, that stuff that I was writing. So I went ahead and just made it kind of like a almost a full time being here because I do have my regular nine to five job here, but I do these type of shows like C2E2, New York, and I've been after New York back in 2016. I've done Keystone Comic Con and 29. No, yeah, 2019 was Keystone Comic Con. This is my passion here.

28:36 I've had been to every last C2E2 except for one and that is 2021, the second year of the pandemic. My actually my first time ever to Chicago was 2020, just before the pandemic started. So it's a crazy little ride. What's the biggest thing that you've noticed a change from 2008 to 2000 and 2026 as far as comics and the the business goes? What I know is most here is what is one of the things that kind of makes me kind of sad, and that is being up here in premier space here. I'm so used to being back then, being next to like a marble at DCA, Top Cow, an image. Now I'm right next to a place that's selling purses, right next to Pokémon being sold and other vendors that selling graphic novels. But the publishers are gone.

29:26 And if if there are publishers here, then nor either in Artist Alley or a small press booth in regular retail space. And it just seems like the focus on the creativity and the actual publishing of comics is diminished. But the pop culture accident is still alive and going here. And it makes it harder for us smaller people, especially if we're taking that next step, to be recognized, to be out in front, to get that audience that we rightfully deserve here to pay attention. To this So as an independent creator, what tactics do you use or what ideas you have to try to bring yourself to the forefront? What we count on here is really social media per SE. I do have a podcast called From the Decimal Small Press Closure, which I do Saturdays at 9:00 PM Central. I also are part of a group called Comic Book Spectrum, which was originally formed by Brian K Morris way back, We don't want to say back in like 2006 or so, which originally started with him, Cly Hall, Brian Rodman, and Eric Hall. I was eventually brought into that group about three years ago because one of the things that I brought up is that a lot of them kept picking a lot of horror comics, and I wasn't really big or horror.

30:42 So I put the jobs out. The deal, It's like, find something else. And then they brought me in and it's like, okay, this is the deal. I'm going to try to find things that you guys might like. I want you guys to find horror related stories that I might like. And we just kind of met from there. Eventually Brian K Morris had to step down as the lead producer and he pretty much gave me the producer title. And from there I was pretty much over the show for that point forward here. We had a lot of panel changes. Here. We have Elaine Haygood, that's part of the panel. That's with me here at the booth today. And we also have Cliff Wirely, it was in Tennessee. That's a part of our panel. But on a weekly basis for comic perspective, there's been a real eye opening type deal to actually do those podcasts and having that positive aspect for comics and talking about things that we like and things that we see in the, you know, TV shows and everything that go across the whole Gambit. But never focus on too much on what is bad. It's more about what is good.

31:40 So Speaking of what is good, what products do you have? What books do you have? Tell us all about your stuff. OK well I got 4 comic book series here with us today. Our most popular is Amazonia, which is about a woman by the name of Elisa Masters who pretty much got shunned and and got thrown out of her hometown at Angel Falls back in her high school days here. But the thing about it is that Elisa is not like the stereotypical woman that you might know here because she doesn't know her family origin on her mother's side. She went through like several different strokes first here and she's currently sitting, you know, stands at about 18 foot tall, but she doesn't understand why or how or anything to that matitude. But when she was ousted from Angel Falls, she was put into this one program by the federal government to train superheroes and everything. So she lived her life as a superhero. Fast forward seven years later, she probably comes back to her hometown to try to live a normal life. However, she finds out that this one business mogul that's in her town hasn't been deadly against her dad. The mobile found out that she's back in town. The whole big deal came down to about stealing her DNA, and now they're about to get ready to create super soldiers using her DNA.

32:50 That's where issue #7 starts out, where the first being from her DNA is created. All right, so that's one book. You said you got four, one of the other 3. AWF is about a wrestling federation that does not know that they're trained the next generation of superheroes. All the women that come there may have like all these different super abilities, but they're treated like they're normal individuals here. AWF got popular enough where people complained about there's not enough wrestling, so we came out with prior time Saturday night. Prior time Saturday night is the actual WWE slash AEW every Saturday afternoon pro wrestling show that goes the full game and full car and everything. You see the all the matches and everything in its entirety what those matches entail.

33:38 There's no energy blasts or anything to that magic, but you got power bombs for 50 feet up in the air. Cross corner luchador battles where it's just like it's just like one move after another after a month, another in the mid air. Anything and everything goes here. So it's just one of those types of things that were just real fun. If you like pro wrestling. But if you like the behind the scenes as far as understanding the origins of the characters, the stuff about their life and and what is actually going on behind the secrets of this federation. That's where AWF is is for the last book is for one that we premiered today. Well, I shouldn't say today, but for this seat to eat you. It is called Legends of the Giants of Slave and what that book is about.

34:18 It's an anthological series here. And this is more along the lines of taking kind of like a deep dive into lore, especially giant lore. And when you think about giants, you think about Jack and and the Beast talking, all these other things where all the giants were male. What happened to the female giants and everything? Why are they not talked about? And then on top of that, we also look at the fetishization of female giants as well in the series for each issue, the first story is always going to be more of like a lecture that kind of highlights some of the fetish aspects here to kind of explain what to look for and what some of the things that might pop up in some of the stories. And then we just go off the rails with different chapters and stories that we have for our anthology series and issue #1 we start off with the prequel chapters for horror anthology here.

35:08 Then that horror anthology deals with the aspect of compatibility. Then we have another one which is just a fun little ROM dealing with experimentation with side effects. And the other one is more of like a comedy dealing with a tailor who inherited this shop from his grandfather, his Photoshop or his grandfather. You know, he was classically traded as a tailor, but it turns out that he was a tailor for beings of another realm and no realm. And that other realm happened to have female giants as well, and they happened to come and visit. In all, let's just say his life is not going to be the same. That actually sounds pretty darn awesome. We're almost out of time, so where can be able to find out more about yourself? Where can those social media stuff go? So you can find ourbooksdirectly@cgcstudios.com, which is X as in Xerox, I as in India, G as in George, E as in Edward, N as in Nancy, C as in Charlie, Y as in yankeestudios.com.

36:04 Or you can hit me up on YouTube, which is from the desktop small person that is the actual channel. Or you can hit me up on Facebook at Joe D Mcfee. Yeah, so we have like 20 seconds left. Do you have any final thoughts for our listeners? The major thing here is always stay positive. Always talk about what you like. Because people what you talk, talk about what you like. People will start listening to you and you might make another fan of what you like. Well, I, I do like your stuff. I do like you as a cool person. It's finally nice to meet you an actual physical person because I've only met you online. So with that, we're going to take a break and we'll be right back with more. It came from the radio. This is Michael Bell, the voice of Duke from GI Joe and I am here at Cradle Com and I am with It came from the radio. Now back to our show.

36:52 Welcome back to What came from the Radio. This is Jennifer Leisfeldman. I'm here with Christopher Kaufman. He's an author, composer, presenter, illustrative artist and performer. He started creating imaginative fantasy books with illustrative art at the age of 9. During high school years, he found music and attended a music composition at Cornell University where he studied with seasoned and maybe even you call them infamous composers. His stories never left him. He's now completing book eight of his classical epic fantasy series, Tales of the Ocean City, for which, in addition to the graphically illustrated pages, he creates audio albums with music, narration and sound design. Which I love because if you listen to this show at all, I constantly ask people if they have audio books that relate to their books so I can listen and really get into it and have the sound effects and the visuals. So here he is, with no further ado. Welcome to a game from the radio. Thank you so much, Jennifer.

37:51 I'm really happy to be here. Thank you. Thank you for being here. So what gave you the idea to, I mean, you started with music first before the books it seems like. So what gave you the idea to add the narration and the music to your books? Most people just put a book out there and it sits on the shelf, and then I harass them about making an audio book and then that's it. But you're doing what I've been asking for. So how did you get there? That's an interesting question, and it took a long time. In your intro there, you mentioned, yeah, I'd started writing books and fantasy books with illustrations, you know, when I was a kid, like 9. And then I went to in New Orleans, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

38:33 That's where I started music in New Orleans and at these great teachers and got into music just there is my life. I became a composer and lived the life of a composer. I got my, as you mentioned, my doctor degrees, advanced degrees in music from Cornell University, right? Yeah, I studied with Pulitzer Prize winning composers and all these amazing people and made permanent friends with musicians and I continue with that. But by the time I had finished my degrees, you know, I'm the type of person, you know, maybe you are too. I don't know. But I put myself to sleep at night. Everyone has a different routine, but for me, it's an imaginative fantasy scenario of some kind that gets me into it.

39:16 And then I live it and then I fall asleep. So I had done that all these years while I was doing my Conservatory and music stuff with my stories, Tales of the Ocean City. So I had my music degrees on one hand and the other the complete event structure of Tales of the Ocean City in my head. And then to get to your question there, I started writing it down. First it was good, you know, it was all right, but it really wasn't really happening. You know, it wasn't it, you know, that feeling that you get. And so then another thing that happened there around that time was I started developing my home laboratory. You know what you can produce in your studio and I was doing like independent films and stuff like that, scoring the music. And I put in my 1000 hours, you know, and I had this whole stuff going to orchestra and all these sounds and everything going on and the, the abilities.

40:11 And they said, well, why not? And then I started narrating and recording my narration of the stories, tales of the Ocean City, and composing the music. And so it all happened at once. And then that was it. Like the sound, the experience of saying the words changed how I wrote them. And, and then I, you know, I literally found my voice with the music. And sometimes the music was first, sometimes the, the, the narration and story was first. Even I knew what was going on in the store was going to happen. Generally a lot of things changed and grew as I did it. The first complete books, the first two books were completely composed this way with the music and the voice and the story all happening at the same time. And that's like 2 hours of full orchestra, you know, like I'm a, I'm a composer, right?

41:01 So a doctor, you know, music Symphony. So it's huge, symphonic, strong, really powerful, passionate music that is a just a real part of it all. It's all together as a one. And by the end of that, I had my voice and my storytelling was happening, you know, And then I did the physical books and I did the art and I worked on the, you know, artistic illustrations and illustrative art and programs that helped me do that using lots of them, blah, blah, blah. And so then the books were there. So then I had the physical books. And then the complete experience theoretically is for, you know, people. Well, it is for people to have the book and be reading and listening at the same time because each page of the books are filled with color, like full page color and illustration is illustrative arts and all kind of stuff so that that you can feel it and you see it and the colors influence your feelings too in the book.

41:55 So it all works together for a very immersive storytelling sound world universe that I created just organically by just doing it. And it just happened and there it is. And then I continued. Yes, I was listening to something you compose called Music from Earth, and I've actually been told verbatim you are not of this Earth. A few people have said I'm an alien and that's a whole nother thing, but something that might not be from Earth, who knows, maybe none of us are. You created music from Earth. It was very relaxing and it created a soundscape environment to live in while I was preparing for this interview and showering.

42:37 And it's, you know, music is maybe creates a mood more than others. Anyway, I just wanted to share that I thought, I thought it was just created a nice environment that I really enjoyed. Now as a creative myself, let's say I'm shooting a movie on Friday. So I'm always working on some type of movie or film every like two or three days. Now that's my life. And you know, just, you know, we don't know each other yet. So now to do that, I, I'm mostly doing things that I want to do at this point of my life at almost 42. But I spent a lot of time doing things I didn't. But the point is, and my question for you is in order to do the things I really want to do, like I think my role on Friday is going to be fun and it's cool.

43:19 There's a lot of things I have to do that I really, really don't want to do. And there's something called Eat the Frog that says, you know, you have to get stuff done. Do the hardest thing when you first wake up and do the hardest thing first. Eat that frog, get over it, and then you can do the stuff that's interesting. So when it comes to music, composing and writing, all these books, the tales of the Ocean City, what's maybe something you really don't want to do, but you have to do, and it's part of the process. Well, to answer that question, what comes to my mind is not anything to do with the creative process of these projects, but you know what you have to do in life to keep yourself going. So I have a day job. I, I love it, but it's, you know, it's something you have to do that isn't exactly what you feel like doing at the moment.

44:04 So in mine is teaching. I teach music usually, you know, people who, who get doctorates in music composition go teaching in colleges, but I, I never felt connected to the academic environment. I found it like when I was trying to connect with it, I started writing my worst music, you know, it got more and more academic and then I stopped and I went in my own way and rediscovered myself and pieces like you mentioned music from earth that was surprised you found it relaxing because the first movement is called Earth rhythm. And it's like the depiction of volcanoes in the in the depths of the ocean, all this violent, wild, ecstatic, powerful music. Now in the middle, maybe you got to the middle part that's peaceful, but.

44:52 Yeah, there was some part that was really nice. I enjoyed it, whatever it is. Sure, sure. Anyway, so. So teaching. So yeah, a lot of times when you try to fit into someone else's mold, even for this radio show, I was thinking that I was like, you know, I've kind of been doing what Mark, the main host, kind of told me to do and wants to do for five years. And I was like, let's you know, I'm not going to disrespect him in any way, but my style is vastly different than probably 95% of the jerseys I talk for the show. Because when you're fitting into a school or if you're hosting for a company, you know, I've shot commercials for Optimum and Project Runway in different companies, that vibe is going to be very different when you're working for someone else and when you're creating for yourself, which might be completely the opposite of what you're doing.

45:42 So I can understand that whole teaching, you know, putting you in a box and maybe making you do things that aren't exactly your instincts. Whereas hopefully when you're creating your own work, you can be the locus of control and do things that feel right for you. Do you do that? Of course, yes, that is the way it is. You are your own boss at every way. I also put on concerts. So as a concert presenter, boy, that has a lot of work in it that isn't necessarily your first joy, which is, you know, developing advertisements and audience and asking people to come and getting them to come and that kind of thing to come to the concert.

46:24 Luckily, one of my concerts is called the Fantastic Theatre and it is once a year, the Sunday before Halloween in a theatre, a beautiful theatrical environment. And it's like about presenting new music and art to people of all ages all at once. And it used to have a really strong Halloween theme, which is why it's around there. For that one, I solved the problem because I became friends with the guy who directs the Mark Twain Middle School band. It's a really high level band. And my daughter went, was in the band. That's How I Met the guy. You know, she went to the, the school middle school there.

47:07 And so now I have the entire band come from my show and I, I, they sit on stage throughout, like on a corner of the stage for the entire show and all of their parents and guardians are required to be there. And then the school gives me a big check to pay for all of their tickets. And then I add other people. But my, I have like standing room only every year at minimal effort. I am so happy about that. That's very cool. And that actually ties back to one of my brands called So So High. It's a fashion brand and it's all about making children do child labor for low wages.

47:48 So that's a good. One, so that's kind of what you're doing, you understand, you know, put kids to work or put, you know, as I'm not going to mention his name. There's a comedy Booker that refers to the people that are part of the show and watch the show as suckers. She's got to get suckers to come to the show and you know, and children anyway, child labor. I'm a big fan of it. That's probably the only reason I would have children is to put them to work for me. But I'm not going to do that. You know, the cost benefit ratio is just really not adding up. Now you have to put in a lot of work to just for the events. You know, I did comedy events and live shows and Film Festival shows and I was putting together 1 show for a Film Festival. Took me like 8 weeks. It took over my life, it took over everything. It was very exhausting.

48:33 I did it for three years in a row and honestly for the last two years I really enjoyed more making radio movies, commercials and forgetting these live events that are soul sucking. How do you what things do you have to cut out of your life or sacrifice to make time for all this productivity? I'm sure you know people say, oh, you can do anything. No, you use 24 hours in a day and you have to neglect certain things if you're going to do other things. So like other part of your life that you have to neglect to get all this stuff done? Maybe in the past, but I've really got it all organized at this point. Where I can just be there all day, you know, be in that world.

49:14 And but similar to your solution to things. I think next week I hope starting my own podcast where I will eventually include all my work, but starting it. It's going to be a new episode of Tales of the Ocean City each week. It was originally conceived as episodes, you know, so each, each podcast will have a 10 minute episode up front of Tales of the Ocean City ongoing fantasy adventure with music and everything. And then the second-half will be a variety of things, interviews, poetic readings, blog entries that I turn into things I read and have music along with it and all kinds of things like that.

50:00 Talk about fantasy authors like Lloyd Alexander, Lord Dunsany. I have a a fun way of doing interviews which is called to the Phantasmagoria Club with Professor Calabash and he he interviews mythological figures and characters from my books. So you get to know the books better and the characters and get in depth with them with through this fun device that I include that will be starting up soon. And it it gets to, you know, then I'll I'll be able to say another thing that I do that I wish to inter, you know, introduce you to are my environment environmental pieces. And here's an excerpt or a bit from music from Earth. And then if you wish to explore further, you can go to my website and see all about that.

50:48 So eventually I'll be able to tie together, you know, all the different things I do into that one place. And that's so much fun because I just create the episodes here in my studio, you know, where I love to work my laboratory and get everything going. I'll put together. And so that's what I'm doing. It's kind of similar to what you're saying, how you wrapped things into a, a bubble that isn't constant out, you know, extroverted, getting people together to come to festivals. You can focus on your work on yourself. Yeah, having that home studio is really important. I had someone that wants me to start a podcast with which I've already done.

51:29 I'm never partnering. It's all about features. But I'm never going to partner. I'm a lone wolf. That's it. I got my studio here 2018, bought this house, built wardrobe closets, have tons of props, have so much stuff that to fill up a car, it would it would take like nine cars to bring this to Brooklyn, you know, to do, oh, come to this, we'll come to this studio. No, I have everything here because you have to have your process in your production studio. And some people don't understand that. So I'm like, I'm not travelling. If you want to come to me, maybe I'll feature you. But like, no, you can't. You can't bring musical equipment and lighting and props and special effects. So the process, I have the process before I do everything before the show, I take a bunch of drugs. Now I take a bunch of legal drugs like coffee today there's called cytocholine.

52:18 Helps your brain a little bit. You know, it's legal. It wakes you up. Wheat grass I have out my door. I didn't have wheat grass. I'm really upset about that, but wheat grass for anyone listening, it actually can wake your brain up so much that if you're on MALIS, which I'm not, but you know, some people take MALIS and depressive drugs and things like that, it can make you mad. So your process, are there any processes you do before composing music or writing a book? Well, you know, I always want to get in shape, but basically I, I, I do like cold brew coffee. You know, where I, it's real simple to make and I down some of that and get to work.

52:59 It's just a constant process. I mean, I, what I love, one thing I love that's new to me, even though it's been around for a while now, is the cloud. So I can sit in my car and I'm waiting, you know, for my daughter to, to get in so we can drive somewhere, whatever it is. And I can pull out my phone and write just right, right, right. And then I go home and it's on my computer, you know, and vice versa. So anywhere you are, I can, you know, take, I just tell myself, OK, just do one word, just change one word, just do one paragraph. And then I end up working. And then she says, Dad, it's time to go, you know, so it's a constant thing like that. So it's just who I am, who you are. And you're just doing it kind of all the time without thinking about it.

53:50 Just do it. You know, it's just after a while, that's just who you are. Music comes to you. You're right, you do it. It's more like you don't have to wait for anything. You don't have to wait for inspiration or anything like that. You just do it. You just do it. Do it, do it, do it. And it's a constant flow. Yes, yes, a lot of the things I did when I was like 2-3 four I'm doing now professionally getting paid for like writing jingles or doing funny dances. And I used to entertain my dad's friends and just, you know, come in and have all these like fake commercials and not making commercials. Anyway, yeah, that my final thought for this because we're at the end of the interview, which I've given this advice. You know, I'm not I'm only almost 42.

54:30 So I, I, I've held back on giving advice. I used to be a give health seminars and be a fitness teacher, but I'm like, you know what, let's do more in life before we give advice. But I'm going to give one piece of advice that's worked for me and it's obviously worked for you to use the cloud for writing. And I had someone call me Crumple paper girl like 10-11 years ago because I'd always walk around. I had all these notes, I'd write down notes everywhere. And then, you know, transcribing the paper to the computer. That would get crazy. So now on my phone, I highly recommend this for anyone writing a song. Stand up music, movies, $0.50, tell all documentary about Diddy, whatever you're creating, get Microsoft OneDrive or you know, some type of note taking file that can go from your computer to your phone to your pad to your car, everywhere.

55:19 And obviously, you know, you don't want to put anything explicit or incriminating 'cause that will end up everywhere and people will see it. So that's a little downside to this, but there's no excuses. You got an idea, you got a quote, you got a movie idea. Get your phone out. You know, you can do it. I do it at a light. I'm not recommending people that text and drive or text while you're at a very long light. You know, there are 5 minute lights out there. But yeah, get everything on your written down in these files. And if you're not doing it, I think you're going to fail at life. So that's my mandatory rule for everyone I want to work with. And I, I, I tried to get this done with one producing partner and he never did it. And that's one of many reasons why I'll never work with him because he doesn't write notes.

56:01 So that's my very long final thought. Please give us great final thought and where to find you. My books and stuff are all at Tales of the oceancity.com. That's easy to remember. talesofthecity.com and my main website for my work, if you want to just see a bit of everything, is sound artists. That's sound art. Us, US sound artists. That's kind of my interface from my creative world into the world. And so that's my home website, which has a lot of things in it. My pages are designed so you can scroll and get a lot in 30 seconds, but then you can dive in and delve and for as long as you want. And then I have a YouTube channel called Sound Artists on, on YouTube and the playlists and you can see the classical pieces, the environmental pieces, the stuff you're talking about, music from Earth and Hudson Valley music and many of those, which are some of my most performed pieces. And then Tales of the Ocean City and audio books and all that kind of thing.

57:02 And the fantastic theater. I have beautiful like 15 minute highlights films from my concerts and you can see the whole thing right there. And it's they're fun to watch. So there you go, that's how you find me. And what date city? Where are these concerts for people that want to go in person? Downtown Brooklyn. Downtown Brooklyn all right that's the end of the interview. We're way over time. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and also sharing your work with me. I find you very inspiring while I was taking a shower and and getting ready yeah sorry that's that's I do love preparing in the shower and texting in the shower. It has good.

57:43 This is very weird. Final thought, that's what happens when I don't script the interview out. Thank you so much again. And now back to the studio for more. It came from the radio. Thank you so much. You had any honour you would listen to sci-fi dot radio the sci-fi for your Wi-Fi. Now back to our show. So that about does it for this week and it came from the radio. Join us right here any week on this radio station. If you miss any part of the show, tough go to our newly revised website www.itcamefromradio.com. The archives will be up in a week or so. Check us out on such places as BTD dot radio, sci-fi dot radio. Check us out on our places such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube page, Twitter.

58:34 And always follow the cost benefit ratio. If the benefits outweigh the costs, do it. If the costs outweigh the benefits, don't do it. Or. Just Google it came from the radio and we'll see you next week. You've Been listening to It Came from the Radio with Mark Torres. The views of the show's hosts and guests did not necessarily reflect that of the management, owners or staff of the station. We now return you to your earthly scheduled broadcast.